


Quitting, With Determination!

by perniciousLizard



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Post-Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 10:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5924277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alphys is miserable.   Her friends notice, and try to help her work through it.   Sometimes "stick with it" isn't the best advice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quitting, With Determination!

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for day three of a "change" themed 30 Day challenge. The whole challenge is [here](https://alloftheseprompts.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/30-day-challenge-writing-about-change/) and all the entries I've finished are [here](http://it-refused.tumblr.com/tagged/30-day-change).
> 
>  
> 
> **"Write about a character changing schools."**

Undyne knew something was wrong when they were watching a new show and she glanced over to see if Alphys was as pumped about the ballerina-to-mecha transformation sequence they’d just witnessed, and Alphys wasn’t even looking at the screen.  

“Woah, what’s wrong, babe?” she asked, alarmed.

“W-what? Oh, nothing!  Nothing’s wrong!”  She looked back at the television.  "Wait, whaaat?  What happened to everyone?“

Their evening was back on course, but Undyne still knew something was up.  Alphys wasn’t the best liar, but unfortunately when she was determined to lie it was hard to stop her, so Undyne eventually told her she hoped she powered through whatever was going on and gave her a full report later.  Someone’s head better get ground into some pavement!  

"Uh…metaphorically or, uh, intellectually, right?”

“Whatever!!!”

Alphys smiled, watery, “Y-yeah.  I’ll just be tough and everything will work out." 

"That’s what I like to hear!”  Undyne whapped her on the back.  

She trusted that Alphys _tried_ or at least thought about trying until she freaked out and hid under a table, but it was clear pretty soon that Alphys’ mood was not improving.  Undyne’s encouragement battered against a brick wall.  

–

“Darling, I hate to say it, but you’ve been a complete drag lately,” Mettaton said.  He was laying across a table, idly running a rose across his face.  "We’re up on the surface, surrounded by humans!  There’s sun, and millions and millions of new fans for me, and you have that school thing you’re doing.  There’s no reason to be a grump about everything.“  

"That school thing?”  Alphys slumped further down in her chair.  Surrounded by humans!  Great.  "You know, I know that humans are, um, varied and not all of them are all good or all bad, and m-maybe you can’t judge them right away or anything, but…you know…I’m starting to think that a lot of them are…jerks?“  She remembered what Undyne had said to her, about how she needed to bust some heads.  She had mostly been busting her own, and maybe she didn’t have to do that.

"Well, of course they are,” Mettaton said, “That’s part of their charm, isn’t it?”

“But some of the ways they’re mean is so; it’s so petty!  I thought maybe I could make some human friends while I was taking all these classes, and like we would have the same interests, maybe.  I mean, Frisk is the greatest, but they’re just a kid, right?  They get kind of glass-eyed when I talk about–” she broke off.  "–anyway.  But no one even wants t-to–I thought I was doing something wrong and, well, I know I must be doing things wrong because I’m so new and plus I’m me so of course I’m going to mess up at first and forever.  But I thought…I thought that someone would at least _try_ to be nice to me!“

Mettaton considered, frowning.  "It sounds to me that you need to quit trying to make nice with these people.  You know you’re smarter than all of them, Alphys.  Sometimes things aren’t about making nice.  Sometimes you have to compete, and you have to stomp down the people trying to hold you back.  That’s show business, and probably this and a lot of other things, too.”

“I was just s-so…excited!  I mean, if I can figure out where human sciences have jumped ahead or fallen behind, and where our sciences are, compared to that, then we can tie together what we know and what they know and we can do so much more cool stuff!  I mean, for better or worse, we’ve done experiments that m-maybe if we shared them, humans would know not to do them.  M-maybe we wouldn’t have to make the same mistakes?  That’s…a big part of what I wanted to start doing, here.”  She drew her hands down her face.  "Oh, god. I hate all those humans, Mettaton!  It’s awful!  I want to like them, but they’re horrible!“  

"Stop wanting to like them!  Hate them!  Grab onto every little bit of negative feeling they’ve given you, and use it to make yourself better!”  Mettaton sat up, flinging the rose away.  "When you’re at the top, they’ll realize they had a shot at being your friend, and they’ll be crushed at how awful they were!  And then, you’ll win!“  

She wasn’t entirely sure if that was the best way to do things.  "M-maybe…maybe I really do need to stop letting them get to me…I need to do that much, anyway…” 

“That’s the spirit!”  

It was easier said than done, but Alphys felt better just getting to talk about it.  

–

“I really hate to say this about anyone, but they all–they’re all garbage, and they suck, and I don’t like a single one of them,” Alphys admitted.  

Undyne nodded.  "So, you want me to beat up some nerds.  I am 100% for this plan.“

"No!  N-no, I mean, yes, I would really like that, but, no!  You can’t do things like that at school.  I’ll get kicked out!”

Undyne was missing where the downside was.  "Do you even like it there? Get yourself kicked out!“

"I _wish_.  I wish I could just leave.”

“But you have to stay for some reason, right?”

“N-no…not really.  I had other offers.  I just liked the ambiance of the campus there.  I don’t even have to take classes, honestly, I had a ton of job offers.  I just wanted a unified basis of knowledge before I tried to–”  She stopped talking and stared at Undyne.  "Wait, why am I still there, again?“

"Because you hate to lose!  Or, I don’t know!  They sound like jerks.”  She wanted Alphys to be tough and win, but she mostly wanted her to stop being miserable all the time.  

“I don’t want to spend all my time around jerks!  And I don’t have t-to…that’s right!  I don’t!  That’s it!  Tomorrow I’m going right in there and I’m quitting!”

“Yeah!!!! That’s what I like to hear!”

“You…y-you like to hear me…quitting?”

“I like to hear you passionate!  Excited!  Waking up every day to go and do your nerdy science with everything you have!”

“And I haven’t been, have I?”  She wiped away a little sweat and tried to think of a single good reason to stay.  

“Quit!  Quit harder and better than anyone ever has before!  I want to see nerds clinging to your lab coat trying to get you to stick around, but you just keep walking!  I want to hear messages on our answering machine, years from now, with people pleading, _begging_ you to grace their institution.  But what will you say, then?”

“I’ll s-say…I’ll say:  No!  I’m not coming back!  I quit for a good reason!  You’re all–none of you were nice to me, and I didn’t deserve that!  Also, you have a faulty and limited understanding of the way souls work, and, and, and, you have bad taste in anime!”

“YEAH!!!!”  Undyne pumped her fist in the air and jumped up on the couch.  "If you’re going to do something, put everything into it, even quitting!“  She pulled Alphys up onto the couch with her.  

"Y-yeah!”


End file.
